To Wait and To Watch
by FreelyBeYourself
Summary: You would think that Obi-Wan, Yoda, or Anakin would have appeared in the Force to try and stop Ben Solo from heading down the path to destruction. After all, they had each appeared in the Force before, to Luke. So why did they choose to remain silent when the Force awakened once again? WARNING: Contains mild spoilers for The Force Awakens.


**Author's Note: I think it's a little odd (and in my opinion, somewhat of a plot hole) that even after Force ghosts were able to communicate in some way with living people in each of the original movies, not once did Yoda, Obi Wan, or anyone else from the Force attempt to come and give guidance to Leia, Rey, or even Kylo Ren. Personally, I think Yoda of all people would have done something to attempt to help turn Ren back to the Light. Or, surely, Yoda would have known that Ren was turning evil; wouldn't he have warned Luke ahead of time, and if all else failed, maybe have told Luke to kill Ren before he turned evil? I assume they will fix this in the next movie. In the meantime, this little piece is to set my mind at ease; an explanation of why, in my mind, Kylo Ren was allowed to get to the point that we find him at. Of course, I own nothing, and this is sheer speculation, and not necessarily to be taken as canon.**

Anakin watched.

He watched with deep concern as his daughter, Leia, struggled to give birth to her first child, her husband at her side, holding her hand and whispering encouragement. It was a long labor and a difficult delivery. The child was large, and Leia had been sick for months. The pregnancy had been tough from the start. Finally, the child was born, and Leia, breathing heavily, collapsed, Han smiling in relief. It was a boy. "Ben", his daughter announced, and Anakin felt their joy. He allowed himself to laugh, Obi-Wan smiling, too, as Yoda watched from the other side of the room, brow wrinkled in concentration.

Anakin watched with pride as his grandson, Ben Solo, picked up his first training lightsaber. He couldn't help but notice the similarities between him and Ben; the same curly, long hair; the penetrating eyes; the fierce features. Ben was much younger than Anakin himself had been when he'd started his own training, but still, the similarities were there, and Anakin felt himself smiling even wider. For a four-year-old, Ben was pretty darn good with that thing; no match for Luke, obviously, but one day, Anakin had no doubt in his mind that his grandson would be one of the greatest Jedi of all time. Obi-Wan, always by Anakin's side, nodded his approval as Luke taught the young one to block and parry. The green blade buzzed softly, and with every slash, the Force quivered in excitement. There was an awakening beginning to occur, and the Force was being used in ways it had not been in years. But from the sidelines, Yoda, too, stood watching, and Anakin frowned, trying not to wonder too much what it meant when the Jedi Master sighed, ears drooping, and shook his head slowly, "Hmmm."

Anakin watched with confusion as Ben argued with his mother. His confusion morphed to shock, and shock morphed to pain as he realized what they were arguing about: Ben wanted to be more like his grandfather – or, rather, more like what he thought his grandfather was supposed to be. _Darth Vader_. "Mother, Darth Vader is the true image of my grandfather. Get it through your head. He was not the man of the Light that you claim he was at the time of his death. He was thoroughly enveloped in the Dark. I know this. I can _feel_ it. And I think he would be extremely disappointed in his daughter for what she's done to negate that." Anakin dropped to his knees, his grandson's words cutting through him like a knife. Around him, the Force reacted, filling with sorrow, as if it knew where this was going, and was powerless to change the course of the future. Anakin closed his eyes and pulled the Force around him, materializing into the 'natural' world – but a hand on his shoulder stopped him, and he frowned, turning to face Yoda. "What is to happen, happen naturally, it must," the older, wiser Jedi warned Anakin, and Anakin had disregarded the Master's advice with horrifying results one too many times to disobey now.

Anakin watched with sorrow as Ben Solo killed his own father. That, he reflected, was the difference between the Light and the Dark: Luke, so firmly rooted in the Light, was unwilling to kill his own father at any cost; Ben, so confused, so torn between the Dark and the Light, was willing to kill his father mercilessly in order to abandon the Light completely. And as Han Solo took his last shuddering breath, the entire balance of the Force shifted; so violent and so sudden was this shift that Anakin, too, felt the breath torn from his body. And he mourned, because with the shift in the Force, the pinprick of a presence that was Ben Solo's flickered out, and he was gone, replaced entirely by Kylo Ren.

"Disturbing, this new shift in the Force is," Yoda said, appearing suddenly beside Anakin, startling the younger Knight.

"Master," Anakin said, grief coloring his voice, "We did nothing. We could have stopped this. We felt this coming a long time ago."

"Anakin," Yoda sighed, and it struck Anakin that this was the first time the old Master had ever called him by his first name, "If known, you had, of where your journey would take you, joined the Jedi would you?"

Anakin thought about it. In truth, he had asked himself this question a number of times. Even though his life as a slave on Tattooine had been horrible to say the least, he knew the pain that he had inflicted – on Obi Wan, on the Jedi, on his family, on the galaxy – and he knew for a fact that if he'd known in advance the things that would come to pass, he never would have left his life on Tattooine behind. Anakin bowed his head in answer to Yoda's question. The green Jedi Master nodded.

"Hmm," he said, observing Anakin knowingly. "And yet, good things did you cause, by joining the Jedi. Saved Obi Wan, you did," Yoda said, and Anakin had to smile at that, especially when Obi Wan appeared next to him, glaring at the small Jedi indignantly. "Created new life you did, in Leia, and in Luke, and in your grandchildren."

Anakin sighed. "My grandson just turned to the Dark Side because he wants to be like me," he said. "I have failed the Jedi. I have failed my family."

Somehow, Anakin had forgotten the power of Yoda's walking stick. He was sharply reminded as the stick slammed into his shins. He winced, glaring at Obi-Wan as his old Master smirked.

"No!" Yoda said firmly. "Looking at it the wrong way, you are. Kylo Ren, his own choices, he makes. Not yours. Nothing to cause this, have you done. Chosen the Light, Ben Solo easily could have. Calling to him, it was. Your fault, this is _not_. Give yourself too much credit, you do. Powerful enough, you are not, to directly influence someone's line of thought over twenty years later, when dead, you are."

Despite the fact that Anakin was still feeling guilty about what he had done, he felt through the Force's reassurance the truth of Yoda's words, and he relaxed a little. But he was still confused.

"But, Master Yoda," he started, and immediately silenced himself when Yoda's walking stick smacked against his shins again.

"Understand you not what I am trying to tell you?" the Master shook his head again. "A slow learner, you are, young Skywalker."

"Yes, Master," Anakin intoned out of habit.

"What trying to say, I am, young Skywalker, is that his own destiny, Kylo Ren must choose, as you chose yours. If informed you were about the future ahead of you, greatly unbalanced the Force would have been. Despite our feelings at the time, bring balance to the Force you did, and would not have done if informed ahead of time we were."

And as the Force whispered understanding into Anakin's ear, the young Jedi stood up straighter.

"What you're saying," he interpreted, "Is that even though we knew what was going to happen, we couldn't interfere because, just like I was destined to turn to the Dark Side and then back to the Light, Kylo Ren is destined for something bigger than what it looks like right now?"

"Hard to see, the future is," Yoda said. "Certain, though, one thing is: if Kylo Ren is not destined for greatness, there remains another who is."

"Rey," Anakin whispered. "Rey is the key in all of this."

"And without Kylo Ren's fall," Obi-Wan reminded Anakin gently, "Rey could not rise."

"Interfere, we will, when the time is right," Yoda said. "For now, we watch."

And watch, they did.


End file.
